


of service to my country

by Snickfic



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: 2017-2018 NHL Season, Arranged Marriage, M/M, Modern Royalty, Pittsburgh Penguins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 01:32:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15697428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snickfic/pseuds/Snickfic
Summary: Olli took a breath. Squared his shoulders. “If I find someone to marry in hockey, then I can be like an ambassador. Like, a hockey ambassador? But it needs to be a significant player. Like you.”





	of service to my country

**Author's Note:**

  * For [katwalking](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katwalking/gifts).



> For the "royalty AU" prompt, because what is royalty for if not for some arranged marriage? :D I hope you enjoy, recip!
> 
> NB: I threw out everything I ever learned about Finland to write this. Please forgive me.

“Can I talk to you?” Olli asked Sid, as the other guys filtered out of video review. He had that particular expression of mulish determination that Sid was most acquainted with when it came to either bad medical diagnoses or some mistake on the ice that Olli was beating himself up about.

They hadn’t even played a preseason game yet and Olli had looked fine so far in practice, so this didn’t bode well. “Yeah, for sure,” Sid said. “Lounge?”

There was no one in the lounge. Olli scanned the whole place twice anyway before finally settling at one of the little tables. Sid slid on the next stool over, bracing himself now for whatever bad news was coming down the pike for Olli this time.

Twenty-four fucking years old. It was not fucking fair. “So what’s up?” Sid asked—neutral, friendly. 

Olli licked his lips. “So you know how I’m a prince.”

“Yes,” Sid said cautiously. Oh god, they were calling him home. Olli was coming off a career season, the Pens had him on a sweetheart deal, and Finland was calling him home.

“So I’m supposed to be getting married,” Olli said.

“Oh?” Sid said blankly.

“I was supposed to be already, they let me push it back a couple of times. But it’s time, I guess.”

“Congratulations?”

Olli huffed a sigh. “My cousin—Princess Riina, she’s in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs? She wanted a political match for me, but my parents had this idea, and they talked her into it.”

“Okay,” Sid said, more bewildered by the moment.

Olli took a breath. Squared his shoulders. “If I find someone to marry in hockey, then I can be like an ambassador. Like, a hockey ambassador? But it needs to be a significant player. Like you.”

Sid opened his mouth. He let it hang there for a while.

\--

Sid’s agent got in touch with him the next day. The day after that, Sid and his agent, Olli and Olli’s agent, Rutherford, and a member of the Finnish government had a conference call, wherein they spoke very cautiously around the edges of some hypothetical future contract considerations that would make Olli’s future with the Pens more certain.

Olli didn’t try to persuade Sid; he didn’t really say much directly to him at all. But he didn’t have to, because with each question Sid asked about the logistics, each pause that ended without him saying _Hell no_ , he could see the faint hope in Olli’s eyes brighten a little. 

Sid called his parents, too, and Flower. Flower laughed for a long time. Then he said, “You don’t have to do this, you know. Just because you’re the captain, you don’t have to.”

“I know,” Sid said. “We already hang out a lot. It won’t be that weird.”

“Hmm,” Flower said.

Finally, he met Olli for late lunch, the day of their second preseason game, which neither of them was dressing for. “So if we do this, you can keep playing hockey,” Sid said.

“In Pittsburgh,” Olli added. “If you don’t want to, then maybe I can find someone else in the NHL? And maybe I can get traded to their team?” He shrugged.

“But it’s a lot harder to swing that. And you might end up back in Finland.”

Olli ducked his head. “Or wherever my partner was from.”

They’d talked out a shitload of hypotheticals during the conference call. Rutherford seemed confident the Pens would find a way to re-sign Olli, especially since he didn’t seem too concerned about the dollar amount. It turned out most of his salary went to charities anyway. And after that, if Sid was retired and wanted out, or the Pens had no more room for Olli, maybe an amicable divorce would be called for.

Olli’s whole career hung on one word from Sid. “I need you to say it, okay. Do you want to get married?”

Olli swallowed. “Yeah,” he said roughly. “Yeah, I do.”

Sid nodded. “So let’s get married.”

Apparently, despite all the talking, this still came as a surprise. Olli’s eyes went wide with shock before he twisted to dig into his jacket pocket. He came out with—well, that was a ring box, wasn’t it. He popped it open and slid it across the table. Inside was a plain silver band—platinum?—inset with a single pale blue gem.

“Wow,” Sid said blankly. “Uh, okay.”

Olli plucked the ring from the box and waited expectantly until Sid laid his left hand flat on the table. Olli slid the ring smoothly onto Sid’s finger. It fit perfectly, which probably meant Olli had talked to the front office to find out what size Sid’s cup rings were. Sid turned his wrist, watching the gem catch the light. 

“What if I said no?” Sid asked.

Olli turned shifty. “I’d have gotten it resized.”

“True romance,” Sid said wryly, smiling at his very weak joke until Olli smiled, too.

\--

The team was confused, mostly, when Sid and Olli made the announcement. Sid put the word out afterward to his A’s: don’t let anyone give Olli too hard a time, the kid’s got enough on his shoulders.

“Not so kid now,” Geno said, eyeballing Sid from under his eyebrows. Sid’s face heated for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

\--

“And now you may kiss,” the minister said, in front of the team and the members of Sid and Olli’s families that were able to fly in and also a small delegation from the Finnish government. Olli wore a fancy sash across his chest in Finnish blue and white. His hair was all combed down and gelled firmly in place, and up to this very moment, he’d been solemn, the picture of dignity.

Now his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open, as if he’d somehow forgotten this was coming, although they’d talked out every detail of the ceremony beforehand. He stared down at Sid with that pale blue gaze, completely frozen.

It was up to Sid to wrap a cautious hand around the back of Olli’s neck, tug him down, and catch his mouth in a kiss—their first, chaste and brief. Then Sid let go. “Wasn’t that bad, right?” he muttered, soft enough no one except Olli and maybe the minister could hear. 

Olli’s mouth curled, just a little.

\--

Sid had told Flower the truth; it wasn’t that weird. Now Olli slept down the hall from Sid—he could have kept his own apartment, but what for?—and turned up in the kitchen every morning, rumpled and eyes cracked only halfway open. 

He was—fuck, he was pretty cute, like that. And oblivious, too, still barely awake. If it took Sid a couple minutes every day sneaking peeks before he got used to the whole marriage idea again, Olli was never going to notice.

On their first day off at home, in mid-October, Olli sipped on his first cup of coffee and said, “You should go get coffee with me.”

Sid looked at the cup in Olli’s hand and then at Olli.

Olli rolled his eyes. “Espresso, Sid.”

“We can get you an espresso machine,” Sid pointed out.

“Or we could go to 21st Street in like twenty minutes. And then we could get groceries after, like you were talking about.”

So they went for coffee. The place was nice, all warm dark wood and warm red brick, and fairly empty at the moment, so Sid didn’t mind sliding into a booth after they’d gotten their espresso. Olli took the chair opposite and grinned at him, his cheeks rounding and eyes crinkling.

“What?” Sid said.

Olli shrugged, but the smile didn’t dim. “Glad you came.” He sipped cautiously at his latte. He had, Sid noticed, turned a little pink. There was a weightless, swoopy feeling behind Sid’s breastbone. 

They hadn’t really talked about this. They’d assumed. Or maybe Sid had assumed, and Olli had gone along with it. “This was a good idea,” Sid said, prodding at Olli’s shoe with his toe. Olli’s grin turned even brighter. Sid didn’t move his foot away.

\--

Sometimes guys chirped Sid on the ice about Olli. Nothing too surprising. It wasn’t what they said to him that landed him in the penalty box, but when they laid Olli out with wholly unnecessary hits for, Sid was pretty sure, absolutely no reason except to goad Sid into starting shit. Not that that knowledge stopped Sid from starting shit. He got a few lectures from Sully about it.

And then, one night, fucking Gudas came this close to boarding Olli’s skull into the glass, and for an instant it felt like Sid’s heart had stopped.

He got a fighting major out of that one. 

“That was stupid,” Olli told him later that night. They were both at the kitchen table, Olli with a protein shake and Sid with ice resting on his bruised knuckles. Olli inspected the ice, and then he lifted it and inspected the knuckles.

“That hit was bullshit. If you hadn’t turned at the last second—” Sid paused to get himself back under control. “They don’t do that to my guys.”

Olli carefully resituated the ice on Sid’s hand, and then rested his own hand next to it. He stroked across Sid’s wrist with his thumb—absently, like he didn’t know he was doing it. It was really distracting. He definitely didn’t know he was doing it. “Just taking care of your teammate?”

“For sure.”

“Really?” 

“Yes?”

Olli lifted his blue eyes to Sid’s. Then, while Sid sat there like a statue, Olli ducked in and kissed him. For about five seconds it was as chaste as the kiss on their wedding day. Then Sid got with the program and kissed back, and it wasn’t chaste as all anymore.

“We could go upstairs?” Olli suggested, when they came up for air. He sounded a little breathless.

“Yeah, okay.” Sid tugged Olli to his feet, the ice pack falling off, unnoticed.

“We have to be careful with your hand, though,” Olli said.

“We don’t have to be that careful.”

\--

 

After, Sid curled against Olli’s back. They were both a little sweaty now. Olli smelled of sex and arena shampoo and himself, warm and organic. Sid could get used to it real fast.

“Sid?” Olli said.

“Yeah.”

“I was glad you were they one they said I could marry.”

“You _were_?”

Olli huffed softly. “I still am.”

Sid pulled Olli in a little closer against his chest. “Yeah. Me, too.”

[end]


End file.
